The Interstate Commerce Commission authorized the St. Louis Southwestern Railway Co. to operate directed service between Chicago and St. Louis. The bankrupt Chicago, Missouri and Western Railway Co. said it lacked enough cash to continue service between the two cities. St. Louis Southwestern will run trains over the CM&W's lines for 60 days without federal subsidy.

Dresser Industries Inc.'s transportation equipment division has closed its plant in Depew, involving about 26 workers, officials said. The closing, which had been previously announced, was caused by a decline in orders for railway-car parts and couplings made at the facility, the company said.

Rail link forged: Canadian National Railway Co., Illinois Central Corp. and Kansas City Southern Railway Co. said they have formed a 15-year marketing alliance that creates a rail freight transportation network linking U.S. markets to Canada and Mexico. Canadian National and KCS also said they have signed a separate access agreement regarding haulage and trackage rights, contingent on government approval of Canadian National's acquisition of Illinois Central for $2.4 billion.

Services will be private for Karl T. Nystrom, 75, former president of a railway supply company. Mr. Nystrom, of Winnetka, died Saturday in Evanston Hospital. He was president of Beck and Blatchford Co., Chicago, from 1956 to 1974. He earlier had been assistant vice president of Standard Railway Equipment Manufacturing Co. of Hammond. Survivors include his wife, Sara; two sons, K. Fred and J. Scott; and two grandaughters.

An investigation is under way into an accident in which a 67-year-old railway switchman was crushed to death Tuesday after becoming trapped between two railroad cars in Bedford Park. Eugene Janik, of the 5600 block of West Von Avenue in Monee, was fatally injured when the accident occurred about 7:30 a.m. at the Belt Railway Co. of Chicago switching yard, 6900 S. Central Ave., Bedford Park, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office. Janik was pronounced dead at the scene at 11:20 a.m. Information about the accident was sketchy, according to Tim Coffey, a spokesman for the railway.

One of Canada's fastest-growing conglomerates, Bombardier Inc., bought Mexico's biggest manufacturer of railway rolling stock from the Mexican government, the Treasury Department announced. The Montreal-based company paid about $68 million for Concarril, outbidding three other consortiums, the announcement said. Bombardier's bid assumed Concarril's debts of $46.6 million and pledged to invest another $20.6 million to develop its manufacturing capacity. It also pledged to export railway and subway rolling stock, and other equipment for mass transportation from the Ciudad Sahagun plant to communities in the south of the U.S., and to Central and South America.

Canadian National Railway Co. and Rosemont-based Wisconsin Central Transportation Corp. have asked the U.S. Surface Transportation Board and Canada's antitrust watchdog to approve their $1.2 billion merger. Montreal-based CN, Canada's largest railway, asked the U.S. regulatory body to treat the transaction as a "minor" one, meaning it would slip under the threshold in the U.S. moratorium on "major" rail mergers. The Canadian firm has the option to exit the merger if it does not get the "minor" designation from the board.

About 5,000 workers at CN Rail went on strike at midnight Thursday after talks with the railway ended without an agreement, union officials said. The Canadian Auto Workers announced the strike plans in a news release issued from Toronto, saying talks that had intensified since Tuesday concluded with "no agreement in sight." Workers walked off the job, said the union, which represents about a quarter of the company's 22,000 employees. CN is Canada's largest railway company.